John,
The Trump administration published appalling new rules last Friday that allow ICE border officials to jail refugee and migrant children in detention centers indefinitely. This is a violent and cruel decision that will result in children being locked up for months--or even years--in overcrowded, unsanitary, and inhumane facilities.
Before this rule, the Flores settlement prevented the government from holding undocumented children for more than twenty days (yet, we know this administration violated this settlement time and time again). The new rule takes these egregious human rights abuses even further:
- It legally gives the Department of Homeland Security the power to keep children in detention centers with no end date in sight.
- It denies the right to legal assistance and representation.
- It gives ICE complete control to set the conditions in which children are forced to live, without any independent oversight or licensing requirements.
Five children have died in ICE custody since September of last year, and two more children shortly after their release. This is a reprehensible and shameful tragedy, and it is on every one of us to protest this injustice.
Tell Congress that you vehemently oppose this cruel and brutal treatment of migrant children and families.
The demonization of those seeking safety and asylum must stop. This administration is committing state-sanctioned abuse against thousands of immigrant families. Not in our name, not on our watch.
For Justice,
